I agree!!! until you get to a 30 inch crotch. (you don't get many like that in the woods) I have a splitter and I've used it one day this winter on a bunch of elm and cottonwood. I split wood with a maul about 50-60 days this winter. Only for the exercise. I cant say a splitter is better in the long run or not. I haven't been around long enough. but for a guy who doesnt get enough physical exercise splittin by hand is a good alternative. but I dont fight the hard stuff by hand, I let the machine do the hard work.
Sick of ash??? Gettin there :)
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benp
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I can split pretty fast with a maul for a few minutes,especially ash,but after a time,at 73 Y/O I'll run out of "gas" long before a splitter will!
zogger
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1project2many
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Ash is easy to split. It seems like a waste to get help or use machinery.
OTOH, I used to be Superman, too. And then I was hurt, and it wasn't by anything that seemed like it would be a big deal. So these days I'm happy to just be man.
Early on I used to split a lot by hand for exercise. We'd bring the rounds in the barn and I'd do it in my spare time and on rainy days. I'm talking 8 -10 hrs a day if needed. I thought I was invincable too....at one time. Not so much anymore. Not 50 yet and I need to have my shoulder worked on as it sounds like they have gravel in theam and they pop constantly. Loosing grip strength too. What I'm saying is, it WILL catch up with you. Surgeries and downtime recovering will make the noisy investment look like a wise one in time. You can still do it by yourself and a gallon of gas and some earplugs are cheap for what the return is.
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I'll keep my splitters, conveyor, grapple, loader forks, wagons and chain saws. I have enough aches and pains as it is, I was once young and foolish too. Now I have a semi office job and my back hurts more sitting than it does splitting.
Why do you bother with a chain saw? Chop those dang trees down, some places they even fall over on their own.
Why do you bother with a chain saw? Chop those dang trees down, some places they even fall over on their own.
You guys have some good points on both sides.
I like hand splitting because it's good exercise. Wouldn't want to have to do it every day but a little every weekend helps keep you in shape, especially for a guy like me who is in an office all week. I've definitely added muscle over the past two and a half years since I moved back home and have processed about 45 cords of wood during that time. Although I'd also point out that humping big rounds onto a splitter is not much easier than hand splitting provided you are working with straight grained species.
Like anything you can overdo it. If you start getting shoulder problems or aggravate an old injury, it's time to open the pocketbook and buy a splitter. Otherwise grab a good axe/maul and go to town.
I like hand splitting because it's good exercise. Wouldn't want to have to do it every day but a little every weekend helps keep you in shape, especially for a guy like me who is in an office all week. I've definitely added muscle over the past two and a half years since I moved back home and have processed about 45 cords of wood during that time. Although I'd also point out that humping big rounds onto a splitter is not much easier than hand splitting provided you are working with straight grained species.
Like anything you can overdo it. If you start getting shoulder problems or aggravate an old injury, it's time to open the pocketbook and buy a splitter. Otherwise grab a good axe/maul and go to town.
jegushee1
ArboristSite Operative
Like I said I ain't in the firewood business. If I was gonna do 500 cord a year maybe I'd get a splitter. I'm a logger. Just happened to be on this lot this winter. You can have all the conveyers, loaders and wagons you want. I'll stick to the 440 b, my Jonsered 2172, my husqy 55 and my maul.
How do you plan to process 500 cords of hardwood with all the snow (150 inches or so) that the media said Maine received? Aren't you up to your ears in mud? What are we supposed to believe?
Around here, most loggers do not process and sell much firewood. They deliver huge logs to sawmills with big equipment. Firewood to a logger is chicken feed. Please advise.
Around here, most loggers do not process and sell much firewood. They deliver huge logs to sawmills with big equipment. Firewood to a logger is chicken feed. Please advise.
jegushee1
ArboristSite Operative
Hey dingleberry I do sell giant logs! Do firewood cause it was hard pullin for awhile. Ya seem awful worried about this Mainer doin some firewood huh? 
p
p
jegushee1
ArboristSite Operative
And by the way "wood doctor" every small time logger like myself in maine will gladly do a little ash firewood if it payin 300 a cord. That translates to 600 a thousand if u converted it to board ft. Take that any day.
so i wonder where the line is?? i started cuttin wood with a bow saw and a 2 sided axe. eventually ended with a skid loader mounted splitter, grapple bucket, dump trailer, owb. went years without swinging a maul. then gained about 15 lbs. joined a gym. started swinging a maul. quit the gym. I probably split wood by hand half hour to one hour a day about 100 days a year. when I cant split i try to do a few push ups, sit ups, etc. so I'm just wondering where you go from good exercise to hurtin your body? or is hurting your body just inevitable?
Wait a minute and calm down. Processing firewood is mostly labor intensive and time consuming. The big logs have to be unloaded, cut to length, split, dried, and delivered in small quantities, loaded back into pickups and transported to mostly residential buyers. There they have to be unloaded and stacked. Most loggers just plain don't want to deal with that nonsense, even at $300 a cord.
How can you blame them? Each big "money" log loaded by the picker onto a flat bed can yield a cord with practically no additional time and labor to process it.
I'm 60 and have 3 herniated discs, have heated entirely with wood for 35 years and would not use a splitter if you gave it to me. I also have been known to walk 54 holes/day on the golf course. My theory is that when you quit using it you lose it
jegushee1
ArboristSite Operative
Look. I cut logs outta big ash trees. Send those to mill. Take tops and small diameter ash for firewood. It's not rocket science! Cut bunch loads of logs, sent them to mill, snow got wicked deep so decided to do firewood for awhile since everyone needed it. Like said I DONT DO 500 cord of split wood a year!!!! Was just doin it this winter. Usually sell mine tree length to big time processors like yourselves presumably
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Jegushee 1, I was joking about the tools and the chainsaw. It's all about the dollars here too. I'm cutting some beautiful ash logs into firewood because it's worth more to me as firewood than hauling logs to a mill. Shame but that's the way she goes. I was considering buying a bandsaw mill but nobody wants to pay what I would need for milled lumber either. Into the owb with it all. At least you are being productive, I've been sitting on my azz all day.
jegushee1
ArboristSite Operative
My ash logs are payin decent, averaging 400-450 a thousand for pretty decent stuff. But they all go to Canada to get sawn
pretty sad but all logs I cut except pine get sawn in Canada and not maine
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